Self-described “missionaries” are now approved to perform a widely discredited psychological treatment meant to make people heterosexual, angering Brazil's health and rights communities who pushed to ban it.

Commentary: Many people undercount the overall economic burden of gun violence. Add to the immediate medical and other expenses the long-term toll, whether lost income or population flight, and the costs are tremendous.

Roiled by two years of recession, the impeachment of one president and indictment of another, and its worst corruption scandal ever, Brazil is not exactly on the path predicted at the beginning of this century, when it was hailed as one of the globe's most promising rising economic powers. What happened? Inequalities and imbalances at home may have been papered over in boom times, but they didn't go away, and now Brazil's leaders face the challenge of finding a more sustainable and equitable way forward.

Thousands of police have been taken off Rio’s streets in the past year, city clinics are closing their doors, and there has been dismal interest in patronizing Rio’s $20 million Olympic golf course — built on an environmental reserve — and the almost completely unsold luxury housing that was once the athlete’s village.

In a country of African Brazilian majority and a male-only government, and after the impeachment of a democratically elected female president, black women are rising up during FLIP 2017, the most important literature festival in Brazil.

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07/04/2015 - 11:30am

El Niño is back. That could mean trouble for crops from Africa to Australia, drought relief for Brazil and California — and new record global temperatures as the Pacific Ocean warms up and brings the heat along with it.

Brazilian supermodel Fernanda Lima has received a torrent of online abuse from Iranian soccer fans, following her appearance at last week's World Cup draw. Lima's dress was too revealing for Iranian TV, which interrupted the live program every time the cameras focused on the model — which was often.

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02/17/2016 - 12:15pm

Brazil's surge in microcephaly cases has been widely blamed on the Zika virus. Now some claim it might be caused by pesticides, or even vaccines. We asked an NIH expert to sort out what we know from what we don't.

Despite over half of Brazilians claiming African descent, black Brazilians face widespread racism — which often manifests itself in violence. For the women of Miss Black Power Brazil, resistance against racism comes from a natural place — their hair.

A photo of three pioneering women doctors has been circulating in social media -- but they're not wearing white lab coats. They're wearing culturally significant dress and they represent the first women doctors from their countries, back in the 1800s.

The Trump brand might seem like a hard sell these days — especially in Latin America. But a couple of years ago, Brazilian businessman Paulo Figueiredo Jr. backed an ambitious project: building South America’s first Trump hotel.